Panasonic here too. Used every day, and makes excellent bread and dough.

We bought a Panasonic one about 18 months ago (sorry I can’t remember the exact model) and have been very pleased with it. On average it gets used at least once a day, either for bread or dough, and has been pretty much faultless.

I have been there on dive holidays a few times. Always to Sabang on Mindoro which is about 3 hours by car and boat south of Manilla. Very different to Manila. Great diving, I have dived in quite a few places around the world and I would rate this area up amongst the best. They don’t have the big fish of the Red Sea, but they have a much greater diversity of species. With a good dive guide the drift diving is exceptional. All the dive sites are fairly local so you don’t spend too long on the boat. I have always dived with Asia Divers who I have found very good.

A single speed is fine around north Hampshire. You soon get used to going up hill on them.

The only major car crime I have bee at the receiving end was where our front door was forced and the wife’s handbag was grabbed and they made off with both our cars 🙁 Pretty common nowadays, and probably the easiest way to steal modern cars. I almost caught one of them, but luckily I had the common sense to not stand in front of the car as it was driven off. On the same night ours went several other cars in the area where also stolen. We now have slightly less desirable cars so luckily haven’t had a reoccurrence, although maybe the fact I was stood there in my boxer shorts has scarred them for life.

According to Strava 4,260 miles. I haven’t checked but it is probably a 50:50 split of road and off road miles.

I am pretty sure I have that set up on my bike. XT 40-28 chainset, 11-36 cassette and XTR Shadow+ medium length mech. It all works fine. I am sure I checked out the numbers when I built it up and it was within Shimano’s limits.

As ChrisE recommends bricktinting will sort that out no problem. I often get involved in looking at sites that require bricktinting on new bricks, and the process works very well.

On your last pic that looks like the red bricks have been painted? That could be more of an issue.

I used one of these on my Epic, which also has the PF BB30 bottom bracket.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sram-Truvativ-PRESSFIT-BB30-Bottom-Bracket-Bearings-/310498737275?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item484b2abc7b

It looks to be the same as the one you have bought. This one came in the Sram box with instructions. It included two 2.5mm black spacer that you can discard if fitting on a 73mm bb shell, so it fits either shell size. It all fitted fine on my bike, I am also using BB30 X0 cranks.

I also got mine direct from Light Bicycle, and think they were about the same price.

These ones: http://www.light-bicycle.com/wider-carbon-mountain-29er-rims-clincher-tubeless-compatible.html

Yes I built them up myself. Hope Pro 2 Evo hubs. Dt Swiss Comp spokes. I haven’t built loads of wheels, but these ones were pretty easy to build.

I have been using a set of the Light Bike Wide 29er rims for a few months now, I have ridden about 600 miles on them – partly on a hardtail and also on a full suss. So far i am very pleased with them, the finish of the product looks great, and they have stayed very true since building them up. I am running them with Bontrager tubeless strips and they are very easy to set up tubeless (I have used Schwalbe TLR and Specialized 2bliss tyres) The only issue I had was I couldn’t get the Bontrager tubeless valves to seal, but switched to some Stan’s ones and they work fine. The rims are very stiff before they are built into a wheel. A rim like a Crest has a bit of flex in it, with these carbon rims they really wouldn’t twist. I don’t think I have noticed this additional stiffness when riding, but if you read the mtbr thread lots of people do…

The only weakness to the rims appears to rock strikes that would dent a aluminium rim. On the mtbr thread there a couple of examples of failures from this. It is hard to tell how badly that sort of impact would have damaged a light weight ali rim.

I bought my rims directly from Light Bikes and they were great to deal with, shipping was fairly quick.

I use the ipad setting and it seems to work fine for me. I use DVD43 plugin, which sorts out any encryption.

Yes it does. Lou hasn’t found it an issue.

Rims were from Clee Cycles. I did buy a pair from Wiggle, but they sent me 29er ones by mistake. Spokes from Rose Bikes, who also initally sent me the wrong size ones… It took ages to get the wheels built.

I bought the Pacenti tyres from some one on ebay who lists them occasionally. The Ralphs were ordered from a LBS, I think they come from Fisher so any LBS should be able to order them in.

The wheels are set up tubeless, so no tubes. My wife carries a spare 26” tube incase of a puncture, although I haven’t tested that it fits – I guess I better do that or buy a 650b tube.

Rims were from Clee Cycles. I did buy a pair from Wiggle, but they sent me 29er ones by mistake. Spokes from Rose Bikes, who also initally sent me the wrong size ones… It took ages to get the wheels built.

I bought the Pacenti tyres from some one on ebay who lists them occasionally. The Ralphs were ordered from a LBS, I think they comer from Fisher so any LBS should be able to order them in.

The wheels are set up tubeless, so no tubes. My wife carries a spare 26” tube incase of a puncture, although I haven’t tested that it fits – I guess I better do that or buy a 650b tube.

I have just checked the Ralphs I have and they are 27.5 x 2.25 and they fit fine at the back and on the Fox forks.

Yes Rons are available. A friend of mine recently bought some from one of the German websites, so can buy them now. I bought my wife’s 650b Crest rims from Clee Cycles, I am not sure what the situation is now but a few months ago not many places had them in stock.

They are Fox 26″ forks on the front, all the tyres we have are 650b x 2.1. With that setup they give more clearance than I get with Reba forks on my 29er. The clearance to the fork crown is fine on full compression too.

Yes my wife (the same one offthebrakes mentions) is racing on one at the minute. She has only done a couple of races on it, used Racing Ralphs and Pacenti Neo Motos tyres in the last race. She is very pleased with it so far, I think she would only go back to a 26″ wheel if it was a very muddy course. There is plenty of clearance at the back of the Whippet frame, but really I wouldn’t go any bigger than a 2.1 tyre.

A few photos of the bike with 650b wheels in her race write ups:
http://www.xcracer.com/viewblogpost.php?blog_id=440
http://www.xcracer.com/viewblogpost.php?blog_id=426

I bought a 64gb one a few months ago. I use an ipad for work and was getting feed up with the kids constantly pinching it to use as soon as I walked through the front door. For the money I think the Playbook is great, our one is now full of the kids DVDs and music (there is an app which connects to itunes). While there aren’t thousands of apps available I have found plenty of games to keep the kids happy.

When I bought it I took out the Currys’ 3 years what ever happens warranty, which does replace the tablet if it is accidentally damaged within 3 years. After owning it for a few weeks I had an issue with the charger port not working (I think the plug had been forced in upside down). Currys were excellent and replaced it on the spot when I took it in.

I have since bought the charging station for it which works well and charges faster than the supplied cable.

My seven year old son now ignores my ipad and his DS and only uses the Playbook. My four year old daughter seems more taken with the larger screen on the ipad. Construction quality of the Playbook seems good and is more solid than other budget tablets. Start up time is slow (like all BB devices), but from standby there is no delay.

I have done it a few times. Over the years it seems have incorporated more and more tarmac sections. Which is a shame. I have single speeded it a couple of times and I am pretty sure I stuck to 2:1, tough on some of the climbs and spinny on the flat bits – I don’t think I would have wanted anything harder.

I have ridden it a few times in the past, it has always been a good route with a friendly atmosphere, well apart form the first couple of miles that can be a bit manic. It is just a shame that it clashes with Exposure 24 this year, which also clashes with one of the Southern XC races.

I have been running an XTR for about 12 months, it definitely helps with chain suck, although doesn’t prevent it totally. The extra tension in the mech helps pull the chain of the chainring if it starts to suck.

I got one to test in Oct 2011, I just didn’t give it back as I liked it so much 🙂 Since then I think they have played around with a lot more LEDs in different shades of green as the Holy Moses is a slightly different colour light.

I have been using them for a couple of years. Firstly a helmet light, and now a Holy Moses bar light. Great lights, and the only brand of light I haven’t managed to kill through using for long rides in wet muddy conditions. Both my Fourth lights have the green tinted LEDs; they give a noticeable improvement over my friends lights with whiter LEDs that tend to wash out trail features.

It has been dry at Deepcut all day today 🙂 I did a lap this afternoon in shorts and short sleeved shirt. Not too muddy, just a few puddles here and there, if you don’t want to get wet most of these can be ridden around. I would guess that after an hour or to a lot of the puddles will disappear. In places the singletrack has been diverted to avoid waterlogged or muddy sections. There are one or two soft sections, which I can see cutting up a bit, but these are all very short. njee20’s tyre selection of Rocket Ron’s sounds about right, I was sliding a bit with a Racing Ralph on the front, mud tyres would be overkill.

Not racing myself, but will be there with the kids while my wife races.

i have just received a pair from Wiggle, but haven’t ridden in them yet. For the prices they are doing them for I would say they are pretty good, the quality of the shoes seems great. As always buying when buying online size is a gamble. I went for a 45.5 which is fractionally small… so I am switching them for a sightly larger pair.

Good luck Pete.

I just hope they don’t ask you to pump up an inner tube with a Presta valve…

I haven’t seen a date for next year yet, but I am sure it is always the 1st weekend of August. Just be warned that Catton Park is as bad as Eastnor in the rain!

We have had a couple of Islabikes. Firstly a Cnoc 14 which my son outgrew, and my daughter is now riding. And also a Benin 20 that I bought 2nd hand a couple of years ago. I think the quality of the bikes is great, despite a lot of rough treatment the bike are still in great condition.

I am currently building my son up a 24″ wheeled bike, on a Kona frame. It is surprisingly difficult to find decent quality lightweight components in kids sizes. I think it will end up lighter and slightly cheaper than the equivalent Islabike, but that is mainly to lots of internet searching for parts, and making use of spare bits I had in the shed.

Just got back 😀 . Well 3 weeks ago really. Me, wife, seven year old son and nearly four year old daughter had a week there at half term. If you have read through the reviews on Tripadvisor I would say they are pretty accurate. The hotel is very nice, the rooms, grounds and pools are fantastic. None of the rooms are far from a pool, with no shortage of sun loungers. The waterpark is great. The only downside is the food wasn’t as good as at other AI hotels we have stayed at, nothing wrong with the quality, but it just didn’t have the wow factor of other hotels. Bars and drinks were all good too.

The Egptians are all very friendly and make a fuss over the small kids.

The flight is a bit of a drag, if your child has a seat to themselves (which they will at 2) that helps as it gives you a bit more space on a fairly cramped plane! Hurghada Airport is chaos, but once you are at the hotel you soon relax.

If I think of anything else I will post up.

When I used to go to the gym lots I often did long (30mins, 10k, 1hr, HM) efforts on the Concept2. I can only remember doing a full marathon distance twice. The first time I managed just under 3hrs, and found it fairly easy (although slightly tedious!) so tthought I would give it another go and got down something like 2:45, I did bother trying again after that..

Here is your old one on holiday in the south of France:

I don’t have it anymore, gone to geared CX. I sold it onto a friend who rides it fairly regularly.

I am pretty sure I haven’t seen another one in the flesh anywhere.

I am just about to put my Scott Scale carbon frame up for sale. It is a large (19″) and in good condition. Let me know if you would like some pics of it. Other than that the Whippet is decent frame for the money, my wife has been racing one since they first came out and it has stood up fairly well to the use. I think Whippet and c456 frames weigh about the same.

I have been using them for sometime. Most off my riding group are using them too, once one person got them every one else needed to up their lights to keep up! Great lights and very reliable. I have a green Holy Moses on the bar together with a smaller Four4th light on my helmet. The flood has a massive spread of bright light, the hotspot on my less bright helmet light is actually almost as bright. On the bars I find the wide flood great. For riding by myself I can easily ride them on low on medium power, I rarely put the Holy Moses on high.

Funnily enough my spare light is a L&M Arc which is I think is one of the best pre modern-LED lights. Mine has outlasted Hope and Exposure lights that I have used since buying it many years ago.

I did a bit of road riding around there last summer while on a weeks holiday. I took my CX bike, and did keep an eye out for off road stuff but didn’t spot anything, all the woodland was fenced off. The road riding was pleasant though with rolling hills, smooth tarmac and not many cars.

I have been very pleased with the cycleops fluid 2 I have had for a few years, although it is outside your price range. It is a well built bit of kit. In comparison the Tacx Swing I had before fell apart after a couple of years of use. Also I much prefer the resistance from the fluid trainer. Include a massive fan in your budget too!

I would agree with the Superstar recommendation. One of their products that actually works and lasts as it should.

I just did a part lap with my son, the course is generally pretty dry, greasy/slippy in a few places, and a few puddles that can be avoided. I think the slippy bits will cut through to dry stuff fairly quickly. There is one wet section on an up hill grassy fire road, which could get a bit boggy as the race goes on (or it may not) but it is only about 10m long. I got around ok on pretty much slick cyclocross tyres, so not much needed in the way of grip.

The course is a fairly undulating, lots of short up and downhills.